Governor's mansion crew prepares for holiday festivities

JEFFERSON CITY — With Christmas right around the corner many people, businesses and sites are preparing for the holiday, one of those sites includes the governor's mansion.

The mansion is set to receive several Christmas trees from all around mid-Missouri on Monday morning.

Crews will put the largest tree outside on display for the public to see. The outside tree is 30-feet tall and was donated by a homeowner in Independence, Missouri.

Jefferson City resident Randall Wilson attended the tree lighting ceremony and a tour of the mansion when he was younger and said it was a great and memorable experience.

"It has been a while but it was pretty cool," Wilson said. "There are a lot of colorful lights and the tourists they had were actually pretty friendly.

On the tour guests will be given a history of some of the rooms in the mansion and will be able to see the smaller decorated Christmas trees.

"Pretty much all they do is take us to a few rooms and they have Christmas trees, if I remember, about eight or nine of them. There are a pretty decent size just filled with ornaments, filled with lights," Wilson explained.

Several smaller trees, from a tree nursery mid-Missouri, will be placed throughout the mansion in areas including the porch, throughout the first floor and near the staircase.

Several school choirs from around mid-Missouri are scheduled to perform during the tree lighting ceremony and the tours inside the mansion. Some of the school choirs include Jefferson City High School, Fulton High School, California High School Helias Catholic High School and Blair Oaks High school.

The Christmas tree lighting ceremony will take place Friday night at 6:15 p.m.

The governor's mansion will be open to the public for tours on Friday from 6:15 p.m.- 9 p.m. and Saturday afternoon from 2 p.m.- 4p.m.